Arthur Mullen's blog

Quetzalcoatl

I just finished giving about a hundred people a chocolate tour. It was actually five chocolate tours over 3 weeks. On the tables and counters I had centerpieces of raw cacao, in the agave fiber sacks from the farm by the Gulf of Mexico in Tabasco, Mx. The latitude at which you can grow coffee beans you can also grow cacao beans, and they have similar dietary properties. People on the tour kept eating the bitter beans, which is bad. The farmers let some of the natural sugars from the pod ferment these guys, but they are not sweet.

At the end of every tour, while the guests enjoy champurrado and a small churro, I told the Promethean story of Quetzalcoatl and the origins of cacao. God of light, he taught the Toltecs how to harvest, roast, grind, drink and trade with cacao beans. Xocolatl was the drink of the Gods, sacred stuff, and they were not happy to see human beings enjoy it. They sent down the God of darkness and night, Tezcatlipoca. In the square, he posed as a merchant and convinced Quetzalcoatl to drink a potion. Queztalcoatl got out of his mind, yelling, dancing.

He woke up the next morning full of regret for humiliating himself, hungover from the intoxicant pulque. Having made a fool of himself before the Gods and people, Quetzalcoatl decided to leave the Toltecs. On his way out of town, he saw all the cacao trees had grown cactus-y barbs and transformed into agave. Quetzalcoatl walked all the way to the sea by the Gulf of Mexico, what is now Tabasco. The God of Light paused at the shore, reached into his pocket and finding a few stray cacao beans, tossed them over of his shoulder, and disappeared.